The New York Times has a different kind of interactive infographic (information graphic) these days. And I like it because it’s a departure from what we’ve come to expect of visualized information in the last couple of years.
While modern infographics have become useful tools, many are two dimensional and only capture a singular moment in time.
The interactive above (click the image to see it live on the New York Times site) visualizes the Facebook buzz around the World Cup in South Africa using photos of the players themselves who are widely talked about.
Scrub across the timeline and you can see how the conversation flows between these players and their countries.
Infographics have quickly transformed the way that we communicate raw, boring data. Gone are the yesteryears of piecharts and graphs. But in the short time that the modern infographic has taken storm on sites such as GOOD, the visual format is becoming stale.
This is partly because there are so many people visualizing information now, and also because the speed of information allows us to create and share content so virally that there’s an over-saturation of visualizing any data. In fact, because data is processed so fast thanks to modern technology, the information on an infographic yesterday can be dramatically different than one created today, as can be visualized in the interactive above.
The challenge is in thinking of a unique visual, then having the resources – particularly time and talent – to create them before the data becomes out-dated. Or as the New York times did, create one that takes you across time so your information doesn’t get old, but rather builds a unique story beyond the sheer number of data points that individually, are meaningless snapshots.